What happened to the quick Tweet and Facebook post buttons on Control Center in iOS 7?

With iOS 6, Notification Center had two quick button actions, tweet and post to Facebook, that could be reached from anywhere on the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad with the downward swipe of a finger. Now, in iOS 7, they're gone. Disappeared. Taken out back and shuttered. So where did they go, and how can you quickly tweet or post to Facebook now, on iOS 7?

Short answer, they got obliterated. Not moved. Not hidden. Obliterated. The truth is, they never fit into Notification Center, because they're not notifications. They're actions. They were out of context. However, the brand new Control Center seems to exist to take on just exactly those jobs. Quick access to Settings, quick access to apps, why not quick access to tweeting and posting to Facebook?

Apple, in their infinitely looped wisdom, however, hasn't seen fit to include them there. Maybe they will in a future update, maybe they've decided those quick actions just weren't right and we won't ever see them again. In the meantime, if you loved the iOS 6 quick action tweet and Facebook post buttons, you're in for a huge disappointment. They are no more.

One alternative is to use Siri, which can now post to both Twitter and Facebook. Simply say "Post to Facebook" or "post to Twitter" and then dictate what you want to say. It's incredibly fast and convenient... if you're in a situation where you can talk out loud to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

If not, the alternatives aren't anywhere nearly as quick or convenient. You can use the Twitter and Facebook app, one or a third-party alternative Twitter apps like Tweetbot or Twitterrific. They're nowhere nearly as always-accessible as Notification Center, nor are they as single-purpose or streamlined as the quick action buttons, but they still exist.

You can also use the tweet or Facebook post action in the Share Sheets in most apps to quickly send out a message, but the catch is you have to share something to do it, and you're not always going to want to do that.

In a perfect world Apple would include them in Control Center, or a similar mechanism, and enhance them with actionable notifications so we can reply and reset within apps as well, making even more of our actions quick. Sadly, we don't live in that world yet. Strangely, the upcoming OS X Mavericks not only retains the quick action tweet and Facebook post buttons in Notification Center, but actionable notifications as well. And it's not even mobile, where those features are inarguably more urgently needed.

So, no good answers, but if you used and relied on the old quick actions button, feel free to vent in the comments, and if you come up with any brilliant work arounds, let me know!

Reader comments

What happened to the quick Tweet and Facebook post buttons on Control Center in iOS 7?

There might be a tweak that adds the Facebook post and Twitter Tweet buttons in notification center or control center when iOS 7 jailbreak comes out, just like there might be a tweak that adds the unlocking sound. :)

I have an idea, they could add a "triple feature to the home button". As it is, you tap it once, you go home, tap it twice, and you can tab between apps, but my idea for tapping it three times is to bring up a feature called "iPost" that would essentially be a pane designed with a quick post to all your favorite social feeds that you would then customize through the settings. If you're a programmer and interested in the idea, but need more detail, please feel free to contact me at Adamplex.Gaming@Gmail.com

I'll be using Twitter half as much because of this change. I'm on the Facebook app everyday but have no interest in using the Twitter app, the people follow junk up my feed. I just like to tweet every now and then, the notification center was perfect for it.

Me too how terrible were bad thing is that the calendar reminders and Facebook updates on the new pulldown screen that is in stead of the quick post are a week old when I get them! nit today.. the today shows me last week.. The only way I console myself is when I remember to press the Siri button and when he opens , i say "post to Facebook" and then whatever my message is e.g. "my name is blah blah", and it does.. have to be quick though if not it puts the phone down on you
Also, i notice siri takes 4 times longer to process my speech than it did with ios6, and mis-spells 3 times as much as before.... shame on you Siri..

Think about this. Apple put spotlight as a down swipe from any home screen and disabled swiping left... Maybe in a future update they will add dashboard by swiping to the left to more closely line in with OS10. There they could put widgets like weather, quick posts etc. What made the notification post button great was that no matter what I was doing on the phone I could swipe, type then swipe and continue what I was doing. We would then have to leave whatever app we were using in order to post that way. Food for thought.

I miss the quick tweet button. :( The app takes forever to load and the fact that I have to exist every app I'm using in order to tweet puts a strain on my home button as well! I'll probably be making a new trip to the Apple store to have it replaced. I love my 4, but Apple, please bring back the quick tweet button.

disappointed this is gone i used it alot .. opening the program takes to long and that was a quick and easy way ..I dont have Siri so how can that help for the ppl who dont need to have the newest version cell ........ hope they bring it back

I don't like care for this new iOS 7 in any form or fashion. Sum subtle Tweaks are ok but the overall look and feel isn't for me. Feels like a crappy windows release from long ago. It's time to ditch the fruit and get a smartphone with more features.

Will definitely miss this feature! I found your article by googling how to find this feature again. I used the "post to twitter" action at least once daily . Using Siri isn't an option most of the time for me (I can't speak aloud in many of my settings, or wouldn't want to say aloud what I want to tweet!!).

On the bright side, not only can Siri post for you, but Siri actually works now. I have had, at best a 50% success rate with Siri before, often with hilarious results, but never reliable. As of yesterday, Siri understands everything I say and does so very quickly!

You can actually do a quick post to Facebook and Twitter from inside your safari app. If you push the button that looks like a page with an upward arrow it brings up a quick menus and there you can choose to post to either Facebook or Twitter. I know it is a few extra steps compared to having it on the notifications screen. Although you don't have to open the apps to post something.

This arrow isnt active unless i open an page, and when i open ny page, this page post also to facebook/twitter status! I need to post a status only and i need it to be sent from ios not a mobile! How can i get to active this arrow without opening a page

Yeah I'm also feeling the loss of "Tap to Tweet/Post" (both). I've already filed feedback at http://www.apple.com/feedback/ and hope that Apple listens to us & brings it back. This social integration with iOS was really a small, but very sweet time efficient convenience; and it was implemented so elegantly, in true Apple fashion.

I'm guessing there is still hope for its return (perhaps this time in Control Center?), since Mavericks retained it. Likewise, hope springs eternal for Maverick's actionable notifications to show up in a future iteration of iOS!

YEAH !! I got so disappointed when I found out that these action buttons were gone !! It's so user friendly . I hope that they will put these back in . I mean , how can they not do that when Mavericks are going to retain it and even improve it ?

There's still room in Control Centre for them to be included, as Control Centre only uses about 80% of the screen real estate, so they may still return.
The other reason could be that it they were Forstall initiatives, and were thrown out during the de-Forstall-ing process.

You can you use Twitter through SMS by adding your phone number through your Twitter account. I've always used it and don't know why more people do. You can text a tweet and it can send you texts from people you specifically follow via mobile etc. It's useful if you follow a lot of people and want to keep up with specific people. You can set times where you don't want to receive texts also.
I did really love to quick Tweet it though. Will be missing that and the weather bar.

Ugh! So bummed! The weather, twitter, and Facebook actions were three of the biggest things I used the notification center for. Talk about a disappointment. They were easy to turn off in OS 6 they should have just left it the way it was.

We too think this is a crazy omission, but our app may be the best thing to a solution, we created an app for quick "tap and type" updating of Twitter, Facebook or both at the same time. Our app is DoublePost and if you add it to your dock it's only a home button away. Has some other nice features too for post formatting on each service. You can find it on the App Store.

Apologies in advance if this is seen as advertising, but we feel it does offer you readers another possible solution to updating social networks now that the share buttons are gone.

I used the quick tweet all the time. So much easier than loading an app and typing it out. Apple should've put it in the bottom corner on the NC or something. Or a swiping feature or triple click on the home screen. There are plenty of options.

I like how alot of ppl are saying the problem is solved by siri, next time you're in a noisy environment and want to tweet or FB something, come back and let us know how that works out for you. Seems like a weird oversight by apple considering they put the flashlight and timer in the control center, easily could have put a 'share' selector there to chose either FB or twitter.

if you don't feel like I
using Siri to do it (which I don't since I don't want people around me listening to my tweets, etc) you can use an app called Drafts to quick post to lots of networks. I put it on my dock, tap, type, and tap where I want it to go.